Friday, April 19, 2013

Josh got accepted!

I feel like this is the Josh blog lately! I don't mean for it to be, Josh just keeps doing awesome things lately!

He came home from school today, thrilled to announce that he was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society!! I'm so excited for him I can hardly stand it. He really wanted this and it's so fun to watch him succeed. There is an induction ceremony on May 2nd that I'm really looking forward to.

I'm so proud of that kid. He's just succeeding all over the place lately. It's funny, when you have little kids you think that raising a baby and toddler is the hardest part of parenthood. Potty training and sleep training and all of that is hard and it's exhausting. But I never realized until recently that raising toddlers is a piece of cake compared to raising teenagers. Toddler problems are temporary. They eventually potty train, they eventually sleep through the night, they eventually give up the pacifier, they eventually stop throwing tantrums at the grocery store.

Raising teenagers is SCARY! Their problems are more life altering. Helping them navigate choosing good friends, teaching them work ethic, helping guide them to good academic choices, etc. Those are things that shape their lives and follow them forever. It's hard to know when to step in and when to let them make their own choices. It's hard to watch them fail at things and make mistakes, it's hard to worry about their self esteem and whether they have good friends and how much to shield them from all the crap in the world without making them so naive that the world is shocking to them. It's hard!

Josh turns 13 in a few weeks and we're navigating these waters for the first time. I have no idea how to raise a teenager. This year has been a really interesting one for him. Seventh grade is where you really start to figure out who you are, I think. I've seen a lot of personal growth and change in him this year as he has started to figure out where he fits in to the world and I'm incredibly proud of the choices he's making. I known I joked about my motivational speeches the other day but we really have been talking to him a lot about how the choices he makes now affect the path his life will take later and I think some of that is getting though. I love watching him be brave enough to put himself out there and try new things and succeed at them. I'm excited by the path he's choosing, I see so many good things ahead for him.

The other thing he recently applied for that we're waiting to hear back about is yearbook staff. He really wants to be on the yearbook next year and he's hoping to find out Monday if he gets in. If he does, next year he'll have honor society, yearbook, film club, interntional club, two honors classes and a student task force that he's also signing up for. He also has scouts and church activities. He's going to be a busy kid but he loves it. I'm happy to see him wanting to be a part of school activities and getting involved with different groups. It's a good way to make friends who have similar interests. He likes being busy and he works hard.

So we have Clarissa who is still going through all those toddler milestones, these days she's learning to write her name, learning to read a few simple words and keeping me super busy at home during the day and Josh who is going through all these new big kid milestones that are exciting but scary and taking up a lot of my brainpower lately and then we have Matthew, who is SO easy right now! Nine is a good age. He's old enough to be independent and young enough not to be dealing with teenage issues yet. He's super happy and easy going, that kid deserves a gold star for being so low maintenance, lol. I have to make sure sometimes that he doesn't get lost in the middle, because I'm a middle child too and I know how that tends to happen. He's so happy to go with the flow, he does his homework, reads for hours, plays with friends, he's happy to do whatever everyone else is doing. I'm enjoying this stage now because I know that it's not going to be long before he starts heading into the scary teenage years.

Being a mom is exhausting and even scary at times but it's days like today when Josh ran in the house and couldn't wait to tell me that he made honor society that its all worth it. I'm proud of all three of my great kids and I love watching then grow!

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About Me

My name is Wendy and I'm a stay at home mom to three great kids. I'm also a full time college student, working towards an eventual master’s degree in marriage and family counseling. We brought our youngest child home from South Korea in October 2009, which was the inspiration for this blog. I love to read, I love photography, I love to talk about international adoption and I love all things Korean!